Keeping it in the family. Rory's chrome Rochet

We like to keep bikes in the family here at Via. You may recognize this one, maybe. This bike used to belong to our esteemed colleague and good friend Joel. He moved to the west coast not too long ago and sold his chrome Rochet to our colleague Rory, who does a great job working at the front end of the shop doing sales and repair diagnosis. Joel took some bits and bobs off the bike leaving Rory with a relatively blank canvas to build upon.

It is currently set up as a three speed with Sturmey Archer alloy shell AW hub (recently overhauled of course), Campy record high flange front road hub converted to bolt on version for security reasons, and Sugino cranks with chain ring . Velocity Aerohead rims are nice and durable for city riding. The bike retains the Honjo Le Paon fenders, Velo Orange porteur front rack, Velo Orange porteur bars, and Tektro inverse levers. A new Brooks B-17 saddle rounds out the build. The overall impression is a really well put together city bike capable of most any day to day task executed with style.

Barn fresh Rochet bicycle on Ebay

Funny listing on French Ebay, an later Rochet bicycle that was recently located in a barn.
the description translates to "Found in a barn - Sold in its own juice."
a link to the bike on Ebay is here-

Restoration Styles

Lovely Bicycle! - a great blog bicycles and cycling, just had an interesting post about the restoring of older bicycles. They broke it down to 4 main categories-

The Full Restoration Approach-Make as original as it was when first built, replace worn parts with exact replacements of what it originally came it.

The All-Original Approach- Keep it all original, as the title suggest. Replace nothing, even if it means the bike then become obsolete.

The Period-Appropriate Approach-A restoration that is looser, does not have to be exact, but outfitted with parts that would be of the same time period as the frame.

The Updated Remix Approach- This is an anything goes approach. Bike is personalized and set up to suit the rider, no restrictions on what the bike was originally.

Read the original article-Refurbishing Vintage Bicycles: Different Perspectives

I love an all original bicycle, unrestored, of course. Most of my bikes fall into that category, but I do have to update perishables such as tires and brakepads, to make them ride able. I do have one bike, my chrome Rochet, that is anything but original. It was originally an early 1960s 10 speed bicycle and I have since turned it into a commuter, with upright handlebars, alloy fenders, fixed gear wheels, and porteur chaincase. It is a far cry from what it was originally.

Picture of my 1960s Rochet

This Picture was taken a couple weeks ago at the New York City Bicycle Photo Booth. I decided to take the Chinatown bus up to New York City to have my bicycle picture taken by Keiko Niwa
and to support my friend Harry Schwartzman. More photos of bicycles and people that attended here on the NYC Bicycle Jumble website.

Frexel inverse Brake levers

I love city bikes. I don't understand people that ride bikes in the city without fenders and chainguards, and dare I say. . . upright riding position!!

The search for brake levers for the upright riding position leaves the rider looking either at current stock(modern plastic/aluminum Mtn. bike levers) or older brake levers. Most brake levers found on upright bikes were plain Weinmann or Dia Compe alloy brake levers that haven't changed much since the 1960s. They are nice and look at home on any classic bike, but I wanted something a little different. So I started looking at weird French brake levers.

I first had a set of these cool slim-lined aluminum brake levers. They looked great and also had a great feel. But I wanted something even cooler, weirder looking. My friend Fred had purchased a french Porteur bike from us a couple years ago, and it had Mafac inverse brake levers. I loved the look, but inverse brake levers were very hard to find. So went to the only place that would have them, Ebay. I bought various sets of them-CLB, no name, and finally set my eyes on a beautiful set of Frexel ones. They are sculpted, and highly polished, and a nice final touch- they are super lightweight. I have yet to install them on a bike, because I have no bicycle worthy of them yet. I am hoping that the same fortunate circumstances happen with the brake levers as what happened when I bought a Jack Taylor stem, I was given a Jack Taylor Super Tourist, missing a stem. So I am waiting on my Rene Herse Porteur bike, missing brake levers ;)

On my current city bike, a 1960s french Rochet road frame set up with Honjo fenders and Velo-Orange Porteur rack, I installed Tektro inverse brake levers. They are very nice and have a spring return. As nice as they feel, they have nothing on Frexel.

Upcoming new items

Well the website and Ebay are soon to get a shot at a bunch of stuff we procured over the past 6-12 months now. After scouring the country, and the world, for awesome stuff, time is now to start to offer it up. We have picked the gems we want to keep for our collection, I have personally found a couple cool things for myself including a 1961 Schwinn Paramount tourist bicycle. That is the model that came stock as a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, with upright handlebars and fenders and chainguard! Pretty awesome.

I set up a vintage mixte Witcomb frame as a single speed.
Well, on to some soon to be seen items.
PreWar Schwinn Cycletruck from the Hershey Chocalate factory, late 1970s Raleigh Professional 54cm, tall Raleigh International frameset, deluxe late 70s Benotto road frame, various rare campagnolo, huret, and simplex bits.

I leave you with my new bike I am using for city commuting. It is an early 1960s french Rochet chrome frame. It was originally chrome plated, then painted a translucent candy color over it. when I got it, it had already been stripped of it's paint. It is currently set up as a fixed gear, as I have not had time to install the front brake to turn it into a Sturmey Archer 3 speed. I got the handlebars, brake levers, fenders, and front Porteur rack from Velo Orange. Front rack is not properly installed it yet. The Schmidt dynohub and Schmidt e-6 light are from Peter White cycles. I still have to install a chainguard as well. The rack is the perfect size for a flight case record box that I strap down with old inner tubes. The handlebar stem is an old underslung track stem I had laying around.

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